Legends of Wrestling

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See Hulk Hogan and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat in our new batch of wild wrestling media.

By IGN Staff

Remember back in the day when you weren't sure if wrestling was real or staged? Where the secrets were hidden and the magic was still there? When in Wrestlemania 2, Hulk Hogan wrestled King Kong Bundy in a steel cage and the World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight title was on the line? Yeah, that was the golden age of wrestling. Now, thanks to Acclaim, you can go back to that time, in Legends of Wrestling.

If you're like me, well, then you love wrestling! You also have to try every wrestling videogame out there. And I'm here to tell you about Legends of Wrestling because Acclaim gave us the playable online version this week to give you, the fans, a sneak peek look at the game.

Let's start with the most important part of the game. Who is actually in this thing? Well, it's quite an unbelieveable list, honestly. Legends of Wrestling has a very simplistic look to it, and in it are 40 grapplers from which to choose. Here's the rundown of characters in no particular order:

Hulk Hogan

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka

Jerry "King" Lawler

Bret "Hitman" Heart

Ted Debiase (No Million Dollar Man name I guess they didn't get the rights)

George "Animal" Steele

Terry Funk

Ricky " Dragon" Steamboat

Iron Sheik

Kamala

Tito Santana

Nikolai Volkoff

"Mr. U.S.A." Tony Atlas

Koko B. Ware

Harley Race

Dynamite Kid

"Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert

Rick Martel

Ivan Putski

"Cowboy" Bob Orton

The Sheik

Kevin Von Erich

Kerry Von Erich

Hawk (Road Warrior)

Animal (Road Warrior)

The One Man Gang

Don "Rock" Muraco

Rob Van Dam (Yes, I kid you not. This man is in this game.)

The grappling system has changed quite significantly since Acclaim's previous wrestling titles, WWF Attitude and WWF Raw. The buttons are quick grapple, lock-up, attack, and counter/block. Quick grapple enables you to quickly toss your opponent. The attack cannot be countered but inflicts a small amount of damage, from which the opponent can quickly recover. Lock-up implies just that: The characters lock up and from then you can push other buttons to apply devastating maneuvers. The attack button enables you to punch, kick, chop, or any non-grappling attack. The moves are all pretty basic.

The counter/block button is the feature that I feel makes this game unique. Now, I know what you're thinking, "All wrestling games nowadays have a counter button, genius." But this game is different. Instead of hitting the counter-button at some arbitrary time, the game offers a meter that you must push at a specific time. It's a little weird, and it really makes me feel like I'm playing Parappa the Rapper. This feature makes the game interesting to play, but at some points I felt like it slowed down the action.

I would have to say Career mode is an instant classic. Legends of Wrestling takes you back before Vince McMahon and the WWF took over the world. You begin career mode choosing which territory you would like to wrestle in. The choices are North Eastern, South Eastern, Pacific, Southwest, and Midwest Territories, and then you proceed to wrestle. During the match you must proceed to pummel your opponent then pin, make them submit, or TKO them. At the end of the match the game calculates your score based on the audience excitement and if you pulled off cool combos, bloodied your opponent, or executed nicely timed reversals you'll receive bonus points. The points are then added to your popularity meter and the more your meter fills the more popular you become. Also the more you play career mode you will be able to unlock more wrestlers and new moves.

The Create-A-Character mode is nice. You select your name, moves, entrance music, and wrestler. Naturally, entrance outfits are available. My favorite option, naming your finishing maneuver, is included, too. The coolest feature is the fact you can pick whether you wish to be a baby-face (good guy) or a heel (bad guy), something that seems to be missing from all of the other wrestling games.

Another likeable aspect occurs during the entrances: Depending on what buttons you push you can do different things. For instannce, players assign different poses/taunts to buttons, and by pressing these buttons the wrestlers interact differently each time. For example, the first time walking down the ramp with the entrance music playing, you can press square to have the character slap the fans' hands. Then, pressing triangle makes your wrestler flex his muscles. After the match, you arrive at a different arena and while walking to the ring players can hit circle and the wrestler waves at the fans. In short, these options enable your character to have a custom entrance every time!

It appears that the Create-A-Wrestler mode is somewhat limited, compared to previous Acclaim wrestling games. Don't get me wrong, there are hundreds of outfits to choose from, but there is only so much you can do with them. Say you like a jacket and you want to change the collar color without changing the whole outfit's color. Well, that option is out. So is changing the entrance outfits' color. The face of the wrestler is also not possible; eyes, nose, and mouth are all set. It's a different development team, and so it's got different features, what can I say?

We didn't have a manual, so it took us some time to get the moves down. As I played I got a better feeling for the game's feel. You know, when I "Hulked Up" and Leg Dropped my opponents back to the locker room, I felt better about myself. There's a cinematic "Matrix Cam" too, which is cool and weird at the same time. It stops the action and spins around the wrestlers during a cool move, and it's neat looking, but it breaks up the action, too.

Playing this game takes me back to the days when I watched the Hulkster talk about "the Training, the Prayers, and the Vitamins, brother!" And the Million Dollar Man sticking $100 bills in peoples' mouths, and the Animal eating a turnbuckle. These are the legends that will go down in the history books, and they're all playable in Legends of Wrestling.

For those of you who truly believe this was the golden age of wrestling you're going to love this game. So, if you're tired of all the foul language, sexual innuendoes, and just want to see the good guy defeat the bad guy 1, 2, 3, this is the game for you!

Re-live the glory days of bad boys like Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Randy Savage, George "The Animal" Steele, Brett Hart, and more in this groundbreaking wrestling experience. There are 12 different match types to keep your pulse pounding, and legendary wrestling figures, Bobby "The Brain" Heenen, and Captain Lou Albano provide the commentary. There are 30 classic fighters in all, and each one performs his original entrance routine. Play alone or challenge up to five friends.